Wildfire near Melgaço, Brazil (2026)

Wildfire near Melgaço — Sentinel-2 true color

Wildfire near Melgaço — Sentinel-2 SWIR (fuego)

True view Fire view

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True view (left): as the eye sees it.
Fire view (right): infrared (SWIR), sees through smoke and brings out the heat.

🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 brown = already burned
🟠 orange = fire right now

Drag to compare: normal photo on the left, heat brought out on the right.

Green: vegetationBrown: already burnedOrange: fire right nowSentinel-2 · Copernicus

The story so far

About 20 km southeast of Melgaço.

Satellites are picking up an intense heat signature from an active wildfire near Melgaço, Brazil, where 22 recent heat detections in the past 48 hours trace the spread of the front. The fire, which started on November 9, 2026, has reached an estimated size of 330 hectares, or roughly 815 acres, based on satellite hotspots.

This incident unfolds during a regional fire season that typically spans from August to October. The broader Brazilian landscape has seen 12,224,002 hectares burned so far in 2026, a figure that remains 60 percent below the two-decade average.

In context

This wildfire has been burning in Brazil for 1 day. So far it has affected roughly 330 ha (815 acres) — about 3.3 km². That size is an estimate from satellite hotspots, not a measured area.

Close to the tropics, fires tend to follow the dry season and are often linked to land-clearing rather than a single summer peak.